Nine Eleven

7 Deadly Sins

The High Alone from Broken and Reset: Selected Poems 1966-2006

Ego leather,
old gloves
tough, soft
with use
as when
you stop
comparing who you are
to others, greedy
for more
from yourself,
wanting praise
from those
who mean nothing.
Then ego becomes
an old shovel,
sanded, filed down to an edge,
with histories of dozens of gardens in it,
then it becomes
the other face of the guide you can trust
but only
when it compares
who you are
to who you really are
with just
a little more
patience.